And they're off. Cars, steam engines, alcohol-powered bikes-they're going to escape from Berkeley by any non-petroleum means necessary.

The first-annual Escape from Berkeley relay started Saturday morning from Shipyard Labs in South Berkeley. Vehicles will weave through Yosemite National Park and Death Valley National Park before reaching their ultimate destination in Las Vegas on Monday.

Vehicles are allowed one gallon of non-petroleum gas or the equivalent in electricity at the beginning of the race. Participants have to scavenge for fuel along the way when it runs out.

The relay is designed to demonstrate the effectiveness of alternative energy and encourages people to get creative about what they consider fuel, said Jim Mason, who organized the event.

"Fuel is ubiquitous. It's all around us," he said.

Brian Doherty, a senior editor of Reason Magazine and a relay judge, said he sees the event as a way to encourage alternative energy exploration.

"This is about surprise and innovation and doing things differently," he said.

Mason, a Berkeley resident, also founded Shipyard Labs in 2001, an art studio that developed alternative energy methods when the city shut down its power.

Escape from Berkeley combines Mason's longtime passion for cars with his new passion for energy.

"For us, art and energy kind of coincide together," said Jessica Hobbes, event coordinator for Escape from Berkeley. "One inspires the other."

Some of the vehicles take on an artistic quality. The Neverwas Haul is an ornate and industrial carriage drawn by a steam engine instead of a horse.

All vehicles must be street legal and insured as they will be driven on public roads.

Wayne Keith, an Alabama resident, has been driving his green pick-up truck cross-country since September. The truck runs on gasification technology he developed, which converts wood and other materials into fuel. Keith hasn't used petroleum in three years.

Just as the taste of food is as important as the nutrients it provides, Mason said fuels should be both functional and "a form of self-expression."

UC Berkeley graduate Dainuri Rott, founder of Good Life Trikes, which creates solar-powered trikes, said he believes in challenging the status quo's tendency of "burning more oil."

"The answer is in our own backyard ... There's an alternative and it's actually doable," he said.

Rott built a solar-powered trike for the race. However, Rott was one of seven participants who dropped out of the race before it began.

More than half the entries fell through when vehicles didn't start, or weren't completed, among other reasons. This included Mason's car, the 44 mph, which is powered by a gasifier.

Of the six racers who took off Saturday morning, only four made it to the check point at the end of the day.

The first participant to cross the finish line will win a $5,000 award, but other prizes will be given based on quirkiness and creativity.

"A bunch of jokers can literally get together and make vehicles," said Jake Waters, a Texas resident who didn't end up participating in the relay.

Mason said he wanted the race to be a challenge, saying his greatest fear is "that everyone will finish, that it will be too easy."

Tags: ENVIRONMENT